Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cutting apparatus that cuts a cut medium and a printing apparatus with the cutting apparatus mounted therein.
Description of the Related Art
A cutting apparatus that cuts a cut medium using a pair of blades is conventionally known. The cutting apparatus is mounted in, for example, a printing apparatus that cuts a rolled print medium, and is used as a device that cuts and separates a print medium with image data printed thereon into pages.
A configuration is known in which one of the blades is brought into contact with the other blade under pressure to prevent inappropriate cutting.
However, when cut media with different cutting resistances are cut, the configuration disadvantageously fails to deal with the respective cutting resistances, resulting in inappropriate cutting.
To solve this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H06-155372 (1994) discloses a configuration in which a rotary blade fixing member is moved to change the spring pressure of a spring that biases the rotary blade to change the pressing force of the blade according to the cutting resistance, thus improving the cutting performance.
However, when cutting is continued with the increased pressing force, cutting edges are significantly worn off, and the lives of the blades are shortened. When cutting is carried out with the pressing force of the blade increased to enhance the cutting performance as in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H06-155372(1994), the blades appropriately bite into the cut medium at the start of the cutting, preventing inappropriate cutting. However, the blades are significantly worn off during the cutting, and the lives of the blades are shortened.